Thermal mats designed to reduce energy use

Flint Engineering says that its new, flat, thermal-transfer IsoMat can power entire homes, cut refrigerator energy consumption by 30 percent, and speed up EV charging, while also extending battery life. All this can be accomplished, it says, by moving heat from one place to another in a quick and efficient fashion.

As reported in newatlas.com, Flint’s IsoMat is a flat aluminum sheet with rows of tiny, sealed heat pipe cavities built into it. If one part of the mat heats up, the internal fluid soaks up the energy, boils, and then fills the cavities stretching across the mat, resulting in what the company claims is “near-instantaneous heat transfer across the entire surface.” 

By carefully tuning the boiling and condensation points of the internal fluid, different applications become possible wherever there’s a thermal gradient to cross. Flint suggests three, in particular: a building with an IsoMat roof, or walls cladded in this material, could harness ambient temperature differences to naturally heat or cool the interior. Commercial refrigerators could be 30 percent more efficient if they used IsoMat shelves, which would chill things through direct contact. The device could also be used in battery packaging to distribute heat evenly and near-instantaneously throughout the battery pack in electric vehicles, keeping individual cells closer to their ideal temperatures to extend their lifespan while allowing faster charge and discharge cycles.